Ariosa

Ariosa
An occultist
Details
Race	Human
Birthplace	Lambholt, Kessig, Innistrad
Lifetime	Mending Era
Parents	Arinos

Ariosa is a villager of Lambholt on the plane of Innistrad. She also appears to be an occultist involved in the summoning of Old Stickfingers.

History

Ariosa, the daughter of Arinos, found herself caught in the middle of a series of tragic and supernatural events. Her father, a superstitious man, had summoned Old Stickfingers in a desperate attempt to protect their home from being seized by his wealthy neighbor, Dein Salvasi. This dark ritual went wrong, leading to Arinos's disappearance, and setting Old Stickfingers loose upon the village, bringing terror and panic and a spree of brutal murders.

Throughout the unfolding events, Ariosa kept largely in the background, struggling with the loss of her father and the terror that had overtaken her village. She lived in a small, run-down stone house on the outskirts of the village, near a grove of alder trees, and even when Vadrik and Rem Karolus passed directly by her house, she did not step out to greet them.

When the two men began their investigation, they quickly realized the connection between Old Stickfingers and Ariosa's father. When questioned in the village, Ariosa provided crucial information to Vadrik, explaining her father's superstitious practices and the tension between him and Salvasi. Despite the apparent loss of her father, Ariosa seemed calm and calculating in her interactions with the investigators, never letting on more than she needed to.

In the end, after Vadrik and Rem managed to disrupt Old Stickfingers's presence by destroying the mobile used in the summoning ritual. However, Stickfingers was merely unbound from its hearth by this act, and thus forced to act, Ariosa provided the key assistance to finally stop the creature's killing spree. Ariosa had a critical role in performing the second part of the ritual, which specified to Stickfingers that it should only kill those that Ariosa would mark for death. To Varik's surprise, Ariosa knew all the words of the poem that needed to be recited, indicating that she was more involved in the first ritual than she had let on, perhaps even being the one who had performed the occult rite in the first place.

The second part of the ritual was successful, Old Stickfingers took his goats and vanished into the woods. Satisfied with this success, Vadrik and Rem Karolus left Lambholt. Something bothered Vadrik, though. There had been two made beds in Ariosa's home as if Arinos was still somehow present in the house. Vadrik had seen a green glow from their house earlier as if Stickfingers himself had been inside their home. As he rode out of town, a children's rhyme indicated that Stickfingers could steal people's skins - possibly meaning it could take possession of people's bodies. Notably, Arinos was the only villager whose ravaged corpse had not been found.

Story appearances

Title	Author	Publishing date	Set	Setting (plane)	Featuring
His Eyes, All of Them	Margaret Killjoy	2021-09-17	Innistrad: Midnight Hunt	Innistrad	Vadrik, Hailin, Rem Karolus, Malynn, Arinos, Dein Salvasi, Lakil, Old Stickfingers, Ariosa, Vik, Hilgin